Page 149 of Fractured Loyalties
That makes me stop. “Why not?”
He leans back in the chair. “Because I’m the only one who can prove who Vale’s working with. And I know where they’re going next.”
I step forward slowly, shadows sliding across my boots.
“Talk,” I say.
His eyes flash.
And the real story begins.
He doesn’t move. Just stares up at me like he’s waiting for me to sit first. I don’t. I don’t need to. Not until I know which way this tilt will fall.
I watch his hand. Fingers relaxed, not near any weapon. Still, I know better than to assume he’s harmless. The room itself is a weapon—wired, shielded, low enough beneath the surface to evade most surface-level scrapes. You don’t build something like this if you’re not planning to vanish into it.
He turns one of the monitors. Not fully toward me—just enough that the glow spills onto the wall beside us. The screen pulses once, then flickers into a grid of files.
Some of them show images—grainy, timestamped frames from cameras I don’t recognize. Others display map overlays, file trees, comms logs spliced together in fragmented layers. I spot an exterior picture of the clinic.
The way the data’s sorted—tags, aliases, fragmented shells that cross-reference patient records, surveillance hits, and something deeper. Buried beneath the noise.
It doesn’t feel like random intel.
It feels built.
Maintained.
“You’ve been watching us,” I say, breath threading tight through my chest.
He doesn’t deny it. Just smiles, faint and thin. “I didn’t just watch. I helped shape the net they watch with.”
The hairs rise on the back of my neck.
“You were in the system,” I murmur.
He nods once. “Iwasthe system. Or at least, part of the backbone that made it work.”
I move toward him one step. “Who were you feeding?”
His face stills. Not a flinch. Not a lie either.
“First? The same people Elias walked away from. The ones who built Eidolon. Who built the burnt trees and staged the silences.”
“And now?”
“I’m freelance.”
I laugh, low and sharp. “You’re a traitor.”
He doesn’t deny it.
“Vale?” I ask.
He lifts a hand. “He wants power. Legacy. He wants to burn Elias from the inside out. But he’s just the flame. Not the match.”
I narrow my eyes. “Then who is?”
His gaze locks onto mine. No blink. No smile now.
